Severus Snape and Life After Death
by Ambar9
Summary: Severus Snape wakes up after the battle to find that Dumbledore had plans for every eventuality.


Notes: SS and HP in general are not mine.

Severus Snape and Life After Death

* * *

Year One - August

The first time Severus Snape opened his eyes after the battle the nurse standing beside him screamed and dropped the chart she was busily copying to sell to The Daily Prophet.

This return to consciousness was not lengthy by any means, but lasted long enough for him to show the shaking nurse that, while he was weakened and confused, his scowl could still strike fear into the hearts of others.

* * *

The second time Severus Snape awoke he could hear voices near his bed. As he tried to reconcile what he was experiencing to the hazy memories of the battle he could not understand why he was not dead.

Surely he cannot have survived. He, who had worked both sides to Dumbledore's advantage, was never supposed to survive.

He pushed through the haze and the desire to sink back into the blissful nothingness in which he had been floating. He could remember speaking to the Dark Lord, begging for understanding. He could remember pain.

He had to work out where he was before he could move forward. Reluctantly, Severus struggled to open his eyes and when he did he was convinced that he was dead after all.

Through blurry mist he could make out a tall, red haired shape sitting in the chair beside his bed.

Was that really Lily? If it was Lily then he truly was dead.

"Lily?" He croaked, barely able to push air through his lips, let alone make sound. He tried to reach for her, but his arm seemed unable to respond.

"No, not Lily," responded a soft, foreign voice, rising to meet him.

"An angel then", decided Severus. He wasn't put out at all. It didn't really matter who met him in the afterlife, he was dead and that was that.

"No, not an angel either." The figure laughed, "just a lawyer."

Severus, his eyes fluttering closed, could not fathom how any lawyer could make it to heaven and decided he must be in hell.

This less than comforting thought troubled him as he drifted back into unconsciousness.

* * *

The next time Severus Snape opened his eyes they stayed open. Feeling stronger and determined to work out what was going on and if he was really in hell, he turned his head to see if the figure was still beside him.

"Am I dead?"

It seemed a reasonable question and he looked expectantly at the angel.

The voice that responded was light and lyrical, "no." A female angel then.

He waited to see if she would add anything, if she could fill in some of the gaps that troubled him.

"Do you want to be dead?" She asked.

Severus looked at her. He opened his mouth to answer, and then closed it. Taking this as an invitation to continue, the woman took a business card from her purse and handed it to him.

"I am Eve Romanov," she began, "and I was hired by Headmaster Dumbledore to defend you in the event that, in the course of following his orders in the hope of defeating Lord Voldemort, you were required to commit any crime or crimes and he would be unable to defend you himself."

Stunned, Severus opened and closed his mouth again.

"I have already begun proceedings to clear you of any charges laid against you in relation to this instruction and you should not worry, it is all in hand. You are not dead and you will be free.".

Again, his mouth opened and closed. The foreign accent was bothering him. He couldn't place it, or the strange inflection it placed on some words. In his understanding of the world, angels weren't foreign.

"Do you have any questions?" She asked.

It was now that Severus decided that he really needed to say something, anything, to convince this woman (and despite what she said he still wasn't convinced that he wasn't dead and she wasn't an angel) that he was capable of speech.

What he croaked, however, in this moment of confusion and weakness was "I don't think I should trust a woman called Eve. Are you sure you aren't leading me to my downfall?"

As soon as he said it, Severus cringed.

Bemused, she moved back to her seat and sat, forearms extended along the arm rests, legs crossed daintily at the ankle.

"You make a lot of biblical references, Professor Snape. Should I respond with a quip about snakes and trees of knowledge?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could convince his lips to forms his apology, a memo came swooping in through a gap in the door and landed in the woman's hand.

Opening it, she stood and reached down for the briefcase and purse propped up against her chair.

"If you would excuse me Professor, I am needed in court."

Nodding to him, she swept from the room.

Severus Snape closed his mouth, struck silent for the third time that day.


End file.
